Chasing the Schoolers in September

September, can you believe it? Where has our year gone? Why it seems it was just yesterday that I was getting ready for spawning bass and now the fall fishing has just begun. 

September is the month that we get new license for the up coming year for fishing, it is the month that our first cool fronts begin moving in and making water changes like cooling our lakes down and changing the surface temps which make our lakes turn over. Now for those of you that are just getting into fishing and don’t know what I mean by the lakes turning over, this is when the surface waters cool down making the surface waters colder than the water on bottom and thus making the water on top sink to the bottom making the bottom waters rise to the top. When this happens it will bring up trash and bottom scum making fishing slow down until the water cleans back up and this will take about two weeks to do.

Now before all these weather changes get here. Let’s talk a bit on the conditions of the lake at this time. You will find Lake Palestine about four to five inches low with fishing good. 

Now here is what you will find the bass doing. You will find the bass schooling up chasing small shad on your main lake points, back in the back of the main lake creeks and old road ways. The bass will do this until we get the cool fronts that make the lake turn over. You will have fish to slow down for a short while and then go right back to schooling and you will then have good school activity all the way through October.

Hear are the lures that I will use to catch my schooling bass. First I will throw my all time favorite lure one that I build and call the Shimmy Shaker. The Shimmy Shaker comes in two sizes and now I have a new Shimmy Shaker that I call the Foot Ball Shaker which comes in 3/8’s oz. The Foot Ball Shaker is great for fishing deeper water. I will cast the Shimmy Shakers out into the school fish and let it sink down for about a count of three and then start my retrieve back, this will normally drive the bass wild. Second I will cast out a crank bait and there is two that come to mind and both being favorites for this sort of fishing, one is the Rat-L-Trap and the other will be the Bomber BD6 in a shad color. The next lure I will cast out will be the 6 inch Thunder Worm made by Mister Twister lures and I will rig it on a Carolina rig, or on a drop shot rig and the Texas rig and last, the all time one best top water bait, the yellow magic. All the lures mentioned above are great for catching school bass and if you try them I think you will agree. The best colors in the shakers will be Blue Herring, Blue Fox, Thread Fin Shad and Skeeter. The Crank Baits should be a white or shad color and the Thunder Worm will be water melon seed and red shad.

Crappie fishing will pick up in September and you will find them working good under your main lake bridges on jigs and small minnows. My favorite jig will be the Mister Twister Mr. Mino in a white or white/blue color.

White bass will be good on the main lake points on small Rat-L-Traps and spoons.


Catfish will be good on rod n reel using liver, red worms and shrimp on main lake points and under boat docks.

If you are here to Lake Palestine and run low on your Mister Twister products you can find a great supply of them at the Lake Palestine Resort. They carry most of the products mentioned here in my reports.

Be sure you buy your new license before going out and when you do get on the water watch for the school bass, I think you will enjoy fishing for them as much as I do.

Until next time catch all you can, keep only what you can use and release the rest for another day and remember to take a kid fishing and you will seek a reward that you will remember for ever.

Good Luck and Good Fishing